McDonald’s Donation is Smartest Marketing Spend Ever

The audio and video of Charles Ramsey mentioning McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) over and over will be played for decades to come — many more times than any in-house marketing campaign that McDonald’s could dream up. Ramsey saved three women held captive for a decade in Cleveland while eating McDonald’s and now the company is rewarding him with free food for a year at his local restaurant, CNN Money reports. McDonald’s has just scored its largest and cheapest marketing campaign ever. Ramsey was eating at his local McDonald’s restaurant just before he saw a woman screaming for help and trying to break out of a house. Carrying his “half-eaten Big Mac,” Ramsey leapt into action and the rest is history.

Ramsey is a humble man and quite a character. This — combined with his heroic actions — made him a star on social media. Memes featuring Ramsey have quickly spread throughout the Internet. McDonald’s could not have planned a better grassroots media campaign: Everyday heroes eat at McDonald’s.